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Plant Talk
OC TOBER
2012
Sumacs: The Good, the
Bad & the Beautiful
by Michael Yanny
With Clint Eastwood being in the news lately, it brings
to mind his movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
What a great movie!
If films were made for and by plants, I think Sumacs
would have had the leading roles in the slightly
different but photosynthetically correct version of a
movie called, The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful.
You see, sumacs can be heroes with character flaws,
just like Clint Eastwood in the movie. Most are good to
have along the roadsides where they perform admirably
even under extremely tough conditions. The bad
sumacs are really bad!!! Poison ivy and poison sumac
are like the bad guy in the movie at his murderous
worst. They can torture you for weeks on end after an
unfortunate encounter. In the fall, all the sumacs are
beautiful, with foliage colors of magnificent maroon
to red and oranges and touches of yellow. Even the
poisonous species have beautiful fall color.
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The Good.
The Bad.
The Beautiful?
Just like in the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, where
Clint Eastwood is sometimes despicable and at other
times caring, the good sumacs can sometimes be evil.
Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina), Smooth Sumac (Rhus
glabra), and Shining Sumac (Rhus copallina) sucker
profusely, and are despised by people with small yards
that need to control them and can’t. However, like
Eastwood’s good side in the movie, these same species
can sooth us as we drive by on the freeway in a race to
wherever.
The Good
Three species of sumac look very similar in form and
habit and are found commonly on the roadsides, in the
hedgerows and along the woods edges in Wisconsin.
These are Staghorn Sumac, Smooth Sumac, and Shining
Sumac. They typically get 10-20’ tall and sucker to
form colonies usually about 20-30’ across. All three of
the species occupy similar early successional niches in
our native ecosystem. They all have large, pinnately
compound leaves and prominent rusty-red terminal
fruit clusters that usually last into late winter. The plants
are dioecious, so fruit can be expected on female plants
only. The fruits of these three species can be steeped
to make a lemonade-like tea that is very healthy for
you. The three species differ in several ways. Staghorn
Sumac has brown, fuzzy, coarse twigs that resemble a
buck in velvet. That’s where it gets its common name.
The fruit on this species is also fuzzy, with lots of tiny
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262.252.4980
OCTOBER
2012
Sumacs continued
hairs on each berry in its fruit clusters. The Smooth
Sumac and Shining Sumac are smooth both on the twigs
and the fruits. The leaves of the three species differ
slightly as well. Staghorn Sumac has leaves that have a
hairy leaf stem and rachis, the stem that the leaflets are
attached to. Smooth Sumac has none of the hair on the
leaves. Shining Sumac has wings on the rachis and is
so shiny it looks like the leaves have been waxed.
One cultivar of Staghorn Sumac that has become very
popular in recent years is Rhus typhina ‘Baitiger’
PP16,185 - First Editions™ Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf
Sumac. It has stunning, bright gold, summer foliage
and a less aggressive suckering habit. It can be used in
more confined areas than the straight species. Its fall
color is spectacular, with intense scarlet, oranges and
reds. Tiger Eyes has foliage that is dissected, giving it
a more fine textured, ferny foliage effect (see pictures
on right).
Staghorn Sumac, Smooth Sumac, and Shining Sumac
are all native to Wisconsin. From what I have seen,
Smooth Sumac is the most common species found in
the wild in the Southeastern part of the state. It seems
to be more tolerant of heavier soils than the other two
species. As you travel northwest from the Milwaukee
area and into the central sands region of the state,
Shining Sumac is the most common sumac. It prefers
acidic soils. Staghorn Sumac is found in lighter soils
with little preference for soil pH and ranges farther
The Good
Clockwise from Top Left: Tiger Eyes® Sumac. Shining Sumac with
winged rachis. ‘Gro-low’ Fragrant Sumac. Fragrant Sumac fall
color.
w w w.johnsonsnurser y.com
The Good
Top Left: (left to right) Shining Sumac, Smooth Sumac,
Staghorn Sumac branches. Top Right: Fruit of Smooth
Sumac (top) & Staghorn Sumac (bottom) Bottom: (left to
right) Tiger Eyes® Sumac, Staghorn Sumac, Smooth Sumac
& Shining Sumac foliage.
north than Shining Sumac. Diseases or insects do
not seem to bother these three sumacs with the
exception of Verticillium Wilt on Shining Sumac
and Staghorn Sumac in heavy soils.
Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica) is another
outstanding species native to Wisconsin. It is very
rare in the wild. I have never seen it in its native
setting. Herbarium reports show it growing in a
few locations in very dry, sandy areas. This species
is very widely used for residential and commercial
landscape planting. Because it doesn’t sucker it is a
much more manageable plant in our typical, small
scale, urban landscapes. The species can grow from
2-6’ tall with a spread of 6-10’. The plant is wide
spreading and will layer its branches as a method
of moving. Fragrant Sumac is extremely variable
in size between individuals produced from seed.
The cultivar ‘Gro-Low’ was selected by Ralph
Synnesvedt of Glenview, Illinois for its low stature.
It only gets two feet tall. This cultivar has become
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Sumacs continued
extremely popular in our area for this reason. It is very
useful for massing in parking lot islands, on steep
hillsides and in planting beds where uniformity and
low maintenance are required. No serious disease or
insect problems occur with it. All the fragrant sumacs,
including the cultivar Gro-low, get colorful orange-red
fall colors. This species is one of the most useful of
landscape plants. It’s definitely a Good one!
The Bad
Some bad native Sumacs or Sumac relatives that you
should know about are Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron
radicans, formerly Rhus radicans) and Poison Sumac
(Toxicodendron vernix, formerly Rhus vernix). Both
plants can be responsible for a nasty rash that you
wouldn’t wish upon anyone. It is all due to the chemical
urushiol which is present in both Poison Ivy and Poison
Sumac. Contact with plant tissues especially when in
active growth can cause a painful rash that can last for
weeks. The best way to identify both of these plants is
by the clusters of BB-sized, white berries that persist on
the plants for much of the season. Poison Sumac looks
similar to Smooth Sumac but only grows in swamps
where Smooth Sumac doesn’t grow. Poison Ivy is very
common in Southeast Wisconsin mostly in hedgerows
or on the edges of woods, but sometimes is even found
in the understory of open woodlands. It grows as a
suckering groundcover and vine. I have seen it attach
itself to trees and climb 30’ or more. It is a beautiful
looking plant with bright orange-red fall color but not
one that gets along with people. I am fortunate. I am not
suseptible to the rash. When I was taking the pictures
for this article today, I stood in a patch of Poison Ivy
to take them. I will wash my clothes separately this
evening when I get home. This should help keep my
marriage status intact.
The Beautiful
The beauty of sumacs should not be overlooked just
because they are common. There is beauty in the unity
created by their repetitive masses over large stretches
of land like you see along Milwaukee’s freeways. It’s
what makes hundreds of acres of golden wheat next to
hundreds of acres of verdant corn a picture of solace.
Left & Top Right: Poison
Sumac. Middle Right &
Bottom: Poison Ivy.
The Bad
The suckering Sumacs not only form large individual
masses but they form mounds that imitate the rolling
hills of Wisconsin. They accentuate our beautiful
topography and add rich oranges and reds to it each
fall. In winter, the reddish—marroon fruit clusters
atop the coarse twigs add subtle color and texture to
the drab winter landscape.
Sumacs are incredible! They are Good! They can be
Bad! But in some way, they are all Beautiful!
The Beautiful
Clockwise from Top Left: Poison Ivy along freeway. Staghorn
Sumac fall color. Staghorn Sumac along freeway.
262.252.4980
OCTOBER
2012